The 50 Best Craft Beers In America In 2013, According To Zymurgy Magazine

Geeks love lists -- in theory, if not always in practice. Film geeks eagerly anticipate the decennial release of Sight and Sound magazine's lists of the greatest films of all time. Board game geeks love to track their favorite releases on the "Top Game" list on BoardGameGeek.com. Wikipedia geeks have even compiled a site on their favorite encyclopedia called "List of Lists of Lists!"

Few groups of geeks are as devoted to their geekdom as craft beer fans. And true to form, they love to make lists of the best beers out there. The two most influential lists of this type are probably the Top 50 on RateBeer.com and the Top 250 on Beer Advocate. But you could argue that both those lists are a little bit too geeky for normal beer drinkers. Few of the beers ranked near the top are distributed across the country, or even year-round, so they can be frustrating guides to the craft beer world.

That's where Zymurgy magazine's annual list of the best commercial beers in America comes in. The magazine, which is put out by the American Homebrewer's Association, conducts a poll of its members each year asking for their favorite beers. And though the results sometimes overlap a bit with the RateBeer and Beer Advocate lists, they tend to skew a bit more mass-market. Many more of the beers on the Zymurgy list are widely available across the country.

The magazine just released its list for 2013; scroll down to see what their members liked best. In case you're curious, we've marked the beers that are among the top 50 on RateBeer with an asterisk (*) and those that are among the top 50 on Beer Advocate with a caret (^).